Lewis Hamilton continued his fine start to the weekend in Abu Dhabi as he went quickest in Friday's second practice.

The Mercedes man will go head to head with team-mate Nico Rosberg for the drivers' championship on Sunday at Yas Marina Circuit, and maintained his fine start to preparations by topping the timesheets in the day's first practice.

Having finished 0.133 seconds clear of Rosberg in the first session, the Englishman again held off competition from the German to finish 0.083secs clear later in the day.

Rosberg had initially held a slim advantage when the pair opted for soft tyres, with 2008 world champion Hamilton boosted by a switch to the supersoft compound.

Kevin Magnussen (+0.782secs) of McLaren finished in third, with Sebastian Vettel (+0.846secs) and Valtteri Bottas (+0.957secs) completing the top five - Bottas giving Williams a boost after being blighted by "bodywork fastener problems" in first practice.

Will Stevens (+4.944secs) - representing Caterham on his Formula One debut this weekend - was kept off the bottom of the timesheets by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who failed to register a time after completing just two laps due to an apparent gearbox failure.

There were also difficulties for Renault's Romain Grosjean, who could only muster the 17th-fastest time.

The Franco-Swiss driver faces a 20-place grid penalty for Sunday's race after Lotus brought in a sixth internal combustion unit, turbocharger and MGU-H. In the likely case Grosjean does not qualify on pole, the remainder of the sanction will be served as a time penalty during the race.

McLaren's Jenson Button (+1.390secs) ensured a respectable eighth-quickest time from his 23 laps, despite suffering with a hydraulic leak.